EDITORIAL: Demand for iPhone 5 contrasts with 'Occupy' banalities

Blocks from where Occupy Wall Street protesters marched Monday to mark the first anniversary of the movement, Apple iPhone 5 customers began camping out to be among the first to buy the new phone. The line formed four days before the phones actually go on sale.

A buzzword among "Occupy" protesters is "corporate greed." More than once have we seen that term used in news stories without the quotation marks -- despite being a subjective, politically charged term. (We never see "government greed" in news stories, with or without the quote marks.) Another favorite term of the marchers is "income inequality."
This year's anemic "Occupy" march drew a sharp contrast. Instead of filthy crowds squatting in Zuccotti Park near Wall Street, as happened last year, the campers this year were up along Fifth Avenue at the flagship Apple store. Demand for Apple products and enthusiasm for the latest iteration of the phone pushed Apple's stock price to record highs.

Corporate greed No. Supply and demand.

Income inequality One unlocked version of the new iPhone will cost more than $800. Some will pay it nevertheless because they want the phone.

We noted last year during the "Occupy" mania how protesters used such devices and social media to organize marches, boost enthusiasm and communicate with the outside world. Cell phones, social media, electronic tablets, laptop computers -- you name it -- come from the world of "corporate greed" whose entrepreneurs, inventors and executives have incomes that are out of sync with that of average Americans, including those camping out to buy an iPhone 5. They want the devices and the gasoline and the electricity and the plastics and all the things made possible by "corporate greed."
"Occupy" protestors have an inflated opinion of their worth. Real worth is measured in the marketplace where goods are supplied to meet demand -- even it means the suppliers benefit from "income inequality."
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